We’ve got a couple more Blu-ray reviews for you today, plus a bit of fascinating recent industry news. Let’s start with the reviews…

First up, Dr. Jahnke’s Hell Plaza Oktoberfest review for the day is a bit of a stinker – a little something called 247°F, newly released on Blu-ray by Anchor Bay. Adam always likes to include at least one “dud” title in the Oktoberfest review mix so you really appreciate the good titles. This one is definitely it. Enjoy!

Also today, our own Joe Marchese has written up his in-depth thoughts on a fascinating Alfred Hitchcock classic, now available on Blu-ray from Warner Home Video – Strangers on a Train. It’s well worth a look.

And now for that industry news I mentioned. It initially broke as we were re-launching the redesigned site earlier this month, but it’s worth mentioning now. Paramount Home Entertainment has agreed to a three-year deal to license some 600 catalog titles to Warner Home Video for distribution on Blu-ray, DVD and digital via Warner’s Flixster service. Not just any catalog titles either, but gems like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Airplane!, Terms of Endearment. It does however, EXCLUDE tent pole titles as the Transformers, Star Trek and Indiana Jones films. New release films will also be included after the initial 26-week release window. The deal starts on 1/1/2013. So in other words, a major Hollywood studio has essentially outsourced much of their catalog home video operation to another major Hollywood studio. Fascinating. And all this is in addition to Warner’s own 90th Anniversary release slate in 2013. Here’s more at the Hollywood Reporter and Variety. [Editor's Note - It appears that the deal excludes 100 key tent pole titles, including all the biggest ones. Just FYI.]

Finally this morning, Marvel and Disney have just released the first trailer for the forthcoming Iron Man 3, due in theatres on 5/3/2013. Check it out here:

About Bill Hunt

Bill Hunt is the Editor in Chief of The Digital Bits, and the co-author (with Todd Doogan) of the Amazon Top 50 selling book The Digital Bits: Insiders Guide to DVD. Hunt founded The Bits in 1997, in the early days of the DVD format,…